CAIRless

Seven young men arrested in an alleged plot against the Sears Tower were part of a group of “homegrown terrorists” who sought to work with al-Qaida but ended up conspiring with an informant, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday.

Outlining an alleged plot to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and a federal building in Miami, Gonzales told a Justice Department news conference: “They were persons who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy.”
…
Said Gonzales: “The convergence of globalization and technology has created a new brand of terrorism. Today terrorist threats come from smaller more loosely defined cells not affiliated with al-Qaida but who are inspired by a violent jihadist message, and left unchecked these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al-Qaida.”

Gonzales outlined the contents of an indictment handed up Thursday, which identified Narseal Batiste as having recruited and trained others beginning in November 2005 “for a mission to wage war against the United States government,” including a plot to destroy the Sears Tower.

To obtain money and support for their mission, the conspirators sought help from al-Qaida, pledged an oath to the terrorist organization and supported an al-Qaida plot to destroy FBI buildings, the four-count indictment charged.

Batiste met several times in December 2005 with a person purporting to be an al-Qaida member and asked for boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, vehicles and $50,000 in cash to help him build an “‘Islamic Army’ to wage jihad’,” the indictment said. It said that Batiste said he would use his “soldiers” to destroy the Sears Tower.

The reaction from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)? Damage control:

An official instructed the media to “stop calling these individuals Muslims.” If I were a CAIR official, I’d be more concerned with why one of the members of the cell indicated — I’m getting this from the indictment — he was building an “Islamic army.”

Would it be culturally insensitive of me to remind CAIR that denial is not a river in Egypt?

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This entry was posted on June 23, 2006 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Pith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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It’s entirely likely these guys weren’t Muslims; their names were French/Haitian, not the Arabic names you’d expect. I heard an interview with “Brother Cory” who claimed to be one of them and he kept referring to their warehouse as a “temple” not a mosque or masjid. He also kept referring to the Bible, never the Qu’ran.

It seems the new terrorist cell rolled up near Miami was in such preliminary stages of launching their jihad that they hadn’t yet set aside time to become Muslims.

From the NYT: “Neighbors said at least some of the men were in a religious group called the Seas of David that appeared to mix Christian and Muslim beliefs. The group wore uniforms bearing a Star of David and met for Bible study, prayer and martial arts in a one-story warehouse in the heart of the predominantly Haitian section of the impoverished Liberty City area.”

From CNN: “The sister of Lyglenson Lemorin, or “Brother Levi,” one of the men arrested Thursday on charges of concocting a terrorist plot, said her brother was involved with the group of men to study religion. Gina Lemorin, who had just returned from her college graduation in Atlanta, Georgia, when she learned of the charges, said he had been with the group in Miami doing construction work. But when the group began practicing “witchcraft,” she said, Lemorin left and moved to Atlanta about four months ago …The family of Phanor, who according to the indictment calls himself “Brother Sunni,” told reporters in Miami he was innocent of all charges and was a practicing Roman Catholic, not a Muslim. “They all call themselves brothers and they well-mannered,” said his older sister, Marlene Phanor. “All they was trying to do was clean up the community. We are Catholic. He’s Catholic.” She said the family attends St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Miami. Sylvain Plantin, a cousin of Phanor’s, said he was involved in a religious group called “Mores,” which met to read the Bible.”

From KR: “The group apparently did little to inspire fear in the Liberty City neighborhood where they took up residence. A close family friend and a distance cousin of Stanley Grant Phanor described the leader of the group, Narseal Batiste, as a “Moses-like figure” who would roam the streets in a cape or bathrobe, toting a crooked wooden cane and looking for young men to join his group. Sylvain Plantin, 30, said Batiste was a martial arts expert who preached an obscure religion.”

Now it’ll be instructive to see if you post an update acknowldging your mistaken reflexive condemnation of CAIR’s statement.

CAIR’s apologism for Islamic terrorists remains unabated; this is just one example. Their press conference was held minutes after the FBI’s, and it’s doubtful that CAIR knew any details about the religious leanings of the suspects at that time.

A doctrinare Muslim could, I’m sure, make an argument that theologically speaking these idiots were not ‘proper Muslims,’ but then again, a Sunni would say the same thing about an entirely devout Shi’ite. Seeing as how these guys were actively seeking support from al-Qaeda, which is Islamist as you can get, no, I’m not going to retract my criticism of CAIR.

Actually, there is very little from CAIR that I consider worth listening at all. They are completely knee-jerk apologists for Islam, a religion, which seems to very much support what the terrorists do, from a theological perspective. When CAIR stops worrying about statements about Muslim terrorists and starts worrying about terrorists, I’ll listen. If one of these terrorists picked up was a practicing Catholic, I’ll be waiting for a statement from the Vatican, or some US Catholic group, excusing them. When it comes I’ll give CAIR a break. Until then, I will suspiciously watch them, under the assumption that their loyalties do not lay with the US.

Obviously not yours J. Please wow me with your research and intelligence that would suggest that CAIR is anything more than a cheap mouthpiece worried about normally ficticious examples of prejudicial actions by non-muslims towards Muslims. Re-read the story about the boy crying wolf – no more research is needed. But wait a minute, that would mean you have the ability to not only look up pieces of data, but also the ability to process it and analyze it in context. Too much for you isn’t it.